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You set up a local SEP server, that controls all clients, gives you alert, reports etc. for connected clients.
You can manage all clients, disabling user control over the antivirus - which is propably one of the most important features.
If you set up your domain correctly - you can run a logon-script that automatically installs SEP on the client - so no one can connect to your network WITHOUT SEP.

All in all a great solution - we use it for our corp. network. 7 servers, +60 clients xp->Vista - works perfectly.

Fear not! To defend your business’ IT systems we’re going to shine a light on the seven most sinister terrors that haunt sysadmins. That way you can be sure there’s nothing in your stack waiting to go bump in the night.

You know I read an article a while back that recommended you contact the provider of the AV software and ask them straight out what you should do to make sure your AV software is compatible with a domain server. The reason for this is many services are hampered from AV software. They could be port blocked, like McAfee on access scan or Symantec end point protection. Now, I am not discriminating agains McAfee or Symantec. But, they do have quirks in the configurations that make them work right with domain services. This is why the debate between the different types of AV products looms on. One system administrator may be use to and can configure Symantec or McAfee appropriately to suit their needs.

With that said, think of an AV solution as a last resort to good IT practices. IT practices and knowledge is your very best bet to combatting malware. A site that I like to use in order to educate my users is on the link below. Our IT staff also created an IT Security Awareness course to help users stay away from bad IT habits/practices.

Help your users mold good habbits and you will have much luck in combating plagues.

We dumped Symantec and went with ESET NOD32 after trying Trendmicro, F-secure, and SEP. F-secure is horrible. Trendmicro was pretty good though. I would rate it right behind NOD32.

NOD32 works great. Symantec does not handle greyware very well and as stated above: is a terrible resource hog. We also got the Phyllis virus on nearly every PC in the company about 2 years ago. Symantec tech support was of no help, even after sending them a sample of the infected executable. After getting a copy of Mcafee, it had no problems cleaning the virus off the PCs.

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Im backing trg_dk:.
We insatall symantec on all our clent networks. Thats about 20 business networks in total. Total of about 300 PCs. No known issues here. I guess its a case of making sure you install it correctly.
The managmnet of this software is a breeze

I would agree with aleinss. NOD32 is the way to go. Their programs use very little resources and there are updates hourly or faster depending on whats going on. I have been using their software on many machines for 5 years now and those computers running nod32 are the only one that have truly been virus free.

_PixelstoneAuthor Commented: 2008-10-08

Thanks for all your help, Ihave not heard of NOD32 so I'll go and investigate it further and also download the trendmicro trial software. Then I'll award some points.